


Cheating Harder

by BerryBagel



Series: BerryBagel Rarepair Week 2019 [6]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Everyone Is Alive, F/M, Humor, Infidelity, Lovers to Friends, Older Woman/Younger Man, none of the targ kiddos are in this they haven't been born yet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 09:54:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17958290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BerryBagel/pseuds/BerryBagel
Summary: Clearly, the best way to get revenge on her adulterous husband is for Elia to have an affair of her own.Elia and Jaime realize they're bad at being bad people.Day six prompt: Dorne / Beyond the Wall





	Cheating Harder

Elia felt like having an affair with a college student would be a good way to get revenge on her husband.  Now she kind of feels like it might have been a mistake.

 

Mind you, it  _ was _ a great way to get revenge.  She’d driven her Benz straight to the nearest dive bar, and scooped up the first frat boy she saw.  Easy-peasy. Believe it or not,  _ Rhaegar _ , it’s not hard to impress 18-year-olds.

 

The sex was great, too.  A real workout, and Rhaegar is sure to find the condom in the bathroom trash.  Except... she’d sort of expected the guy, (Jason? Josh?) to leave afterwards. Elia has work tomorrow morning.  But instead of making himself scarce, Jaime (that’s the name!) has helped himself to some toast and returned to bed.

 

If Rhaegar is going to be mad about finding a condom in the trash, he’s going to be  _ furious _ about finding toast crumbs in his side of the bed.

 

Jaime looks around the room as he finishes his toast.  He’s still not dressed, and seems not to internalized the fact that his job here is done.  He picks up a picture frame from the bedside table.

 

“Oh man, are you married?” He asks.  He sounds genuinely distressed.

 

Elia feels defensive.  “He’s cheating on me. For over a year.  With an undergrad.”

 

Jaime nods understandingly.  “I know how you feel. My sister just got engaged.”

 

Elia isn’t sure how to interpret that.

 

* * *

Rhaegar says he’ll be working late on Thursday.  Then he buys two tickets to the opera. Using the shared account, because he’s not slick.

 

Elia picks up Jaime at nine.  Jaime says he hasn’t eaten dinner yet.  Elia offers to bring him somewhere nice.  Last week, Rhaegar spent a hundred dollars on a bottle of wine that Elia never saw.  She feels validated. Lyanna Stark probably can’t tell the difference between a hundred dollar bottle and a twenty dollar bottle.

 

They can’t decide where to go, so they end up in the Wendy’s drive-through.  Neither of them are really dressed for a fancy dinner, anyways. And it’s been forever since Elia last had chicken nuggets.

 

Jaime tells her she’s  _ pretty cool _ .  Elia, sitting in the driver’s seat of the car her cheating husband bought, sharing french fries with a man ten years younger than her, can’t help but feel like the bar for cool has never been lower.

 

She asks if he wants to go back to her place.  He says he’d like to, but there's a big midyear exam tomorrow morning and he’s absolutely gonna fail.  Intro to Dornish history.

 

Elia  _ majored _ in Dornish history, a million years ago.  Summa cum laude. She actually even worked as a tutor, for a few summers.  So, yeah, she offers to help Jaime study for his midyear. He probably thinks it’s some sort of weird innuendo.  He still comes along and makes himself at home in Elia’s living room, as Elia digs up her old textbooks from the storage closet.  They spend the next several hours in a storm of flash cards and primary sources.

 

Elia isn’t totally sure if Jaime fully understands the intricacies of medieval Dornish government structure, but it’s two in the morning and he has to be up at nine tomorrow, so she drives him back to campus.  He probably won’t ace it, but he definitely won’t fail. A successful evening, altogether.

 

Before Jaime gets out of the car, he leans over the center console and kisses Elia on the lips.  Because, yes, she reminds herself, this is a torrid affair.

 

* * *

“Are you cheating on me?” Rhaegar asks.  Eventually.

 

Elia is ironing shirts.  She likes to do all the laundry on Sunday.  Makes for a fresh start to the week. “How did you find out?”

 

“That’s not my shirt.” Rhaegar says.

 

Elia looks down at her ironing.  He’s right. Rhaegar doesn’t own any red dress shirts.

 

Jaime had some formal event with his frat next week, and he didn’t own an iron.  He was just going to wear the shirt with a million wrinkles, straight out of his laundry pile.  Elia wasn’t going to stand for that.

 

“You were cheating on me first.” She tells Rhaegar.  And frankly, he’s been cheating  _ harder _ .  Elia hasn’t slept with Jaime in weeks.  Yesterday he came over and played Call of Duty for three hours while Elia did a crossword puzzle.

 

* * *

Jaime offers to help Elia move into her new apartment.  He brings over some of his guys from the lacrosse team, and they all carry Elia’s couch up three flights of stairs.  Elia buys them beer. She’s pretty sure they’re all of legal drinking age.

 

Jaime introduces her as Elia, and the guys say it’s nice to put a face to the name.  She’s not exactly sure what they’ve been told about her. She’d just as soon  _ not _ know, really.

 

The guys eventually roll out, and Jaime stays behind to help her unpack everything out of cardboard boxes.

 

“400 thread count sheets for the guest bedroom, when you stay over.” She says, showing him the package.  “Because you keep saying you can feel the difference.”

 

Jaime looks at her with mock horror.  “ _ Guest  _ bedroom?  Are you breaking up with me?”

 

Then they both laugh, because whatever this is, it’s comfortable and good, and definitely not an affair anymore.


End file.
